Joe Mauer, who during his previous 10 seasons with the Twins has made the all-star team six times as a catcher, is batting .275 during his first season as a full-time first baseman. Although the All-Star Game will be July 15 at Target Field, the 31-year-old face of the Twins’ franchise isn’t considered, at least at this juncture, an automatic choice.

Asked if Mauer feels pressure to make the American League team because the game will be in his home state, the St. Paul native said, “I’m going to try to do what I’ve always done — go and play the game. I’ve already done a lot with the (All-Star) Game, being an ‘ambassador (Major League Baseball’s designation).’ But I definitely want to be playing, that’s for sure.”

Mauer is a career .321 hitter.

“It means a lot to be selected to an All-Star Game any year, but this year especially,” he said. “I’m going to try to keep doing the same things I’ve been doing and play the game the way I always have.”

Club owner Jim Pohlad said there is a “totally different attitude” about this season’s Twins, who are 24-27, as opposed to last year’s team, which finished 66-96.

“I feel differently about the ballclub than I did last year, and the year before that (66-96),” Pohlad said. “The record isn’t significantly better, but it’s better. It just feels different.”

The Twins were 23-21 on May 21.

“It sounds bad to think that .500 is a goal, but when you were so far below .500 before, I think that would be an intermediate step to get to that point and stay there, and then, as the season wears on, gradually go above that,” Pohlad said. “That would be great.”

Could this season’s club win its division?

“Maybe we have to try to do some other things, I don’t know,” Pohlad said. “But of course, you believe that. The pitching I would say has been way better than last year. But is it as good as it could be with the people we’ve got, I don’t think so. It can be better with the people we’ve got. So there’s hope in that regard.”

Meanwhile, after Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers, the Twins travel to New York for a weekend series against the Yankees, whose payroll is $209,416,323 compared with the Twins’ $86,465,000.

Still, it must be nice to beat a club with that sort of payroll disparity.

“It’s nice to beat any club — I mean, a win is a win,” he said.

Wild owner Craig Leipold, in St. Paul this week on business matters, reflected on his team’s season, which ended in Round 2 of the playoffs against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“We’re happy the way the team came together, the way it developed, the way the young guys developed, the energy we had by all of our players — there’s nobody looking back at the end of the season, going, ‘Man, we don’t feel good about next year,’ ” Leipold said.

Regarding season tickets and sponsorships, Leipold said the Wild project next season to be the organization’s best in the past five years.

Noted ex-NBA coach George Karl will headline a “Supreme Coach” basketball tournament promotion June 19-21 at the Eden Prairie Crosstown Life Time Fitness club comprised of rising basketball coaches in Minnesota in adult pickup games.

Trent Pink, a 6-foot-3, 196-pound sophomore at Elk River High, has been named among the top 20 quarterbacks in the country for the 2016 class by rivals.com. Pink will attend the Gophers’ QB camp on June 21.

Former Miss Basketball Minnesota Tayler Hill from Minneapolis South and David Lighty are expecting their first baby, a boy to be named Maurice, any day. Hill is on leave from the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.

Of the 21 three-point field goals for the Lynx (5-0) this season, Maya Moore has made 17.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Hall of famer Paul Molitor, a Twins coach who this week helped with an All-Star Game promotion featuring “Peanuts” character statues at Rice Park, said his favorite character growing up in St. Paul was Charlie Brown.

“Just the kind of guy he was — things never came easy,” Molitor said. “He had to overcome everything from the slipped football to rocks in his bag on Halloween. It was always a challenge for him. But he always ended up likable.”

Besides ex-Twin Rod Carew expected to make the ceremonial first pitch at the July 15 All-Star Game, look for a major New York Broadway voice to sing the national anthem.

With the major league draft next Thursday, it looks like the Twins are zeroing in on Orlando, Fla., prep shortstop Nick Gordon with their No. 5 overall pick. But they had better hope he’s not another Pedro Florimon: slick fielder, no hit.

Members of the Vikings’ ownership and front-office group on Tuesday were in Kansas City to peruse the city’s Major League Soccer operation. The Vikings want an MLS franchise for their stadium, which will have a 60 percent transparent roof, that’s to open in 2016. The MLS season runs from March 1 through November.

The Twins have no trades pending.

OVERHEARD

Ex-Twin Tony Oliva on why he plans to wait until November before making a trip to his native Cuba: “Waiting until after the World Series. You never know.”

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